Every stock
investor tries to buy low and sell high. Timing the
market can be very difficult for investors, but very
rewarding for companies trying to gain (or avoid)
attention.

Macro trends
often pertain to your business or niche. Catching hold
of the buzz associated with a trend and riding it to
gain attention can be very effective. For example, if
you are a broadband ISP and more people are adopting
broadband, you would certainly want to use that trend to
gain attention.

Seasonal
trends are obvious PR opportunities for e-commerce
companies. With more people going online to make
purchases every holiday season, an e-commerce business
would miss a great opportunity for publicity by not
actively pursuing annual media exposure at that time.

Technological breakthroughs offer tremendous
opportunities. Journalists need the input of an industry
expert at such times, as the news often contains
information beyond their ken.

But what
about bad news? Is there a way to “market-time”
necessary admissions or disclosures that need to be
released…yet would be better left under the radar
screen? Yes! The media is less interested in business
news on Friday afternoons, so that’s a great time to
issue a statement that you want kept low profile. Even
if the statement gets picked up, it usually won’t
generate “legs” over the weekend and by Monday morning
may become a dead issue.

The next
time you have news to disseminate – either good or bad –
take note of the context in which you are sending it.
Depending on the result you seek, smart communication
tactics can help magnify or reduce your exposure.